Japanese authorities call off official visit of President Putin

Tokyo refuses to host the Russian President in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Japanese authorities refused to host the Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Japan, whose visit was scheduled for this autumn. It was written by the Japanese Sankei Shimbun with reference to the officials familiar with the matter.

In particular, a source in the government of Japan said that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would meet with President Putin at the APEC summit in Beijing in November, but only in order to confirm the "continuation of the negotiation process."

The visit of the Russian president in Japan is out of the question. Agreement on the autumn visit was reached in February. However, after the Russian occupation of Crimea Japanese authorities rescheduled the April visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and also canceled the Russian-Japanese consultations at the level of deputy ministers, to be held in August.

As a result, the Japanese government decided that the conditions for Vladimir Putin's visit have not been formed yet.

The Japanese Foreign Minister pointed out that "the progress will not be achieved as long as real steps to stabilize the situation in Ukraine are not taken."

During the November meeting, Prime Minister Abe is going to ask Putin for the peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict to resume the Russian-Japanese political dialogue.

According to a source in the government, there is no sense for Japan to host Putin since he has not shown all his leadership skills in order to achieve peace in the east of Ukraine.

Earlier, in September, Washington asked Tokyo to postpone the visit of Putin. However, until now the official comments of Japan say, "the decision is not made yet, the government is considering the question."